Brisbane Airport announces new direct flights from Queensland to San Francisco

Queenslanders will later this year be able to fly direct to San Francisco after a major announcement by Brisbane Airport on Wednesday morning.

Travellers will be able to fly directly from Queensland to San Francisco later this year following a major announcement from the Brisbane Airport.

United Airlines, the world’s second largest airline, will begin servicing Brisbane from the Californian city with three flights per week from October.

Queenslanders will soon be able to fly direct from Brisbane Airport to San Francisco.

The deal to directly fly between the two popular tourism hubs was described as a “game changer” by Brisbane Airport chief executive Gert-Jan de Graaff, with the potential to boost seat numbers flying in and out of Queensland by about 80,000.

“As Brisbane Airport welcomes more than 75 per cent of all international arrivals into Queensland, securing United is good news for tourism and hospitality businesses from Coolangatta to the Cape,” he said.

“These new services bring welcome news for jobs and the economy, and offer Queenslanders a direct connection to Silicon Valley and beyond” he said.

“Queensland exporters will also welcome the significant additional cargo capacity that comes with increasing the number of international flights to our state.”

United Airlines will launch the flights from October this year. Picture: J. BROWN / AFP)

The major announcement comes after the Queensland Government and Brisbane Airport joined forces on $200 million Attracting Aviation Investment Fund to secure flights directly servicing the state capital.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the new flight deal would inject $73 million into the economy.

“Rebuilding Queensland’s tourism industry is a priority for our government,” she said.

“We’re aggressively pursuing new direct flights to our key tourism destinations to drive visitation and support local jobs. That’s what our Attracting Aviation Investment Fund is designed to do.”

Brisbane Airport Corporation CEO said Brisbane Airport is the “gateway” into Queensland with more than 75 per cent of international arrivals travelling through the terminal.

“This is good news for tourism and hospitality businesses from Coolangatta to the Cape, as each international flight arriving in Brisbane generates up to $1 million in economic activity,” he said.

Patrick Qualy, senior vice president of international network and alliances at United said “with this new service, United will be the first U.S. airline to add a new transpacific destination to its global network since the start of the pandemic.”

“From Brisbane, United customers will be able to easily connect to nearly 20 other cities within Australia thanks to the airline’s new codeshare partnership with Virgin Australia,” he said.

The announcement comes on the eve of the 94th anniversary of Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith’s first transpacific flight from the United States to Australia in 1928.